What’s at stake in memory for the historians of women, 1970-2001
Charpenel, Marion
What’s at stake in memory for the historians of women, 1970-2001 - 2018.
54
In France, the early 1970s witnessed the intensification of feminist mobilizations and an increased social demand for social science knowledge about gender history. Universities and historians developed an interest in the history of women. 1972 saw the creation of specialized courses and research groups. The early institutionalization of the discipline was characterized by the proximity between gender history and the field of militant feminism. Starting in the early 1980s, however, these female historians seeking institutional legitimacy gradually took their distances from politics. This strategy of institutional academic integration was reflected in their research by the avoidance of the topic of memory. Yet, the externalization of the cause of feminism reached its limits in the 1990s : confronted with the resistance of research and higher education institutions, female practitioners of women’s history went back to more a activist practice of history and engaged more directly the political uses of the past, in conjunction with other sectors of the feminist cause. This article analyzes both how female practitioners of gender history address the subject of memory and how they engage with politically motivated practices of construction of the past, thus shedding light on the evolving relationship between gender history and feminism.
What’s at stake in memory for the historians of women, 1970-2001 - 2018.
54
In France, the early 1970s witnessed the intensification of feminist mobilizations and an increased social demand for social science knowledge about gender history. Universities and historians developed an interest in the history of women. 1972 saw the creation of specialized courses and research groups. The early institutionalization of the discipline was characterized by the proximity between gender history and the field of militant feminism. Starting in the early 1980s, however, these female historians seeking institutional legitimacy gradually took their distances from politics. This strategy of institutional academic integration was reflected in their research by the avoidance of the topic of memory. Yet, the externalization of the cause of feminism reached its limits in the 1990s : confronted with the resistance of research and higher education institutions, female practitioners of women’s history went back to more a activist practice of history and engaged more directly the political uses of the past, in conjunction with other sectors of the feminist cause. This article analyzes both how female practitioners of gender history address the subject of memory and how they engage with politically motivated practices of construction of the past, thus shedding light on the evolving relationship between gender history and feminism.
Réseaux sociaux